Third-line antiretroviral therapy in Africa: effectiveness in a Southern African retrospective cohort study

Background An increasing number of patients in Africa are experiencing virologic failure on second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) and those who develop resistance to protease inhibitors (PI) will require third-line ART, but no data on the outcomes of third-line are available from the region. We assessed the virologic outcomes and survival of patients started on salvage ART in a Southern African private sector disease management programme.